Dispelling The ‘Unsafe’ Myth of Naples

Before we’d even arrived into the ancient Italian port city of Napoli – that’s Naples to the English speaking world – people either from home or online were telling us to watch our backs and to watch out especially to our pockets as the city we were about to enter has a shady side and a criminal culture that you really need to watch out for.

Well, we feel that it’s about time that people heard the truth about one of Italy’s most fantastic and misunderstood cities.

Dispelling The Myth

When we arrived into the city and checked into our fantastic art hotel, one of the staff got talking to us and queried just what we’d heard about the city, and how we felt being there. Not being shy, we told him exactly what everyone had been telling us; that it’s dangerous, don’t go out at night, don’t wander out of the centre, etc.

He was incredibly disappointed, but completely unsurprised by what we were telling him.

It seems that most people before they arrive in to the city are told the same thing, that Naples is dangerous to tourists and most likely they’ll have heard the popular Hollywood word ‘Mafia‘ thrown in to scare them a little.

The truth is – he explained – was that in reality, Naples isn’t all that dissimilar to many large cities and metropolises around the world – such as London and New York – and had just as much crime and trouble as everywhere else, the only difference being that over time, the worst stories have been picked up, circulated, and over the decades and centuries that Naples has been a centre for trade; has built into the fear-mongering behemoth it is today.

What he wanted, he explained, was for more people to see the true side to life in Napoli, that if you’re cautious and as sensible as you might be in other cities; then there is a whole beating heart and soul to Napoli that goes unnoticed and unrecognised because of a age-old bad reputation.

Between us, we discussed just how we could get up, close and personal with the people of Napoli, those who don’t live in the rich coastal townhouses, but instead keep the city running regardless of their near poverty.

Play It Safe

Having drawn up a plan of places we could go a little further into the suburbs, and having taken the same sensible steps for our money, passport, etc; as we would for any other city, we stepped out the hotel and began our walk towards the opposite side of town, deep into the lives of the locals.

It wasn’t long before we started to come into contact with a side of the city very different from the 100 year old townhouses, the yachts and the boutique fashion stores all selling Gucci products we’d seen so far; in fact, I don’t think there are many outlets of Versace that have huge piles of rubbish outside them.

As Franca explained to me at the time; a few years ago Naples had a huge disposal and rubbish problem, with bags bring dumped where every people could find space as the local garbage men couldn’t keep up with the sheer output at the time. Thankfully, what you see above is a significant improvement on how bad the situation was at the time, but it still comes as quite the contrast to what you see on the more often seen tourist districts of the city.

The reason that I decided to show this side of the city is because as soon as we started to step over the invisible border of the city into this more ‘typical‘ Neapolitan part, I immediately felt more connect to the real people that lived there.

There are no people in expensive suits or flash cars, they’re as much like both you and I. Together, we knew that the further we delved into the suburbs, the more we’d learn – and we were right

Falling Apart, But People Still Care

Getting deeper into the suburbs we found that the further we went, the further into disuse the buildings became. Some were empty and boarded up, others were just falling to pieces almost before our eyes as we watched. It seemed to us that when things began to break, that’s how they stayed, not until they were fixed, but just the way they stayed until they fell apart enough that they just faded away and disappeared.

What we were beginning to discover was that the reason things disappeared in this way was that it’s not that things are left to rot because nobody cares, but rather that no one can really afford to do anything to stop the rotting and gradual disappearance of plaster on buildings, the wood rotting in door frames or whole buildings that were once regarded as palaces 200 years ago with magnificent staircases that are now greying and moulding amongst the smog and salty sea air.

Sure, there are those people who don’t care about what’s happening to the area around them and if it falls apart, well, whatever; just why should they care anyway?

We know those people exist, of course, but not all of the people in Napoli are like that. In fact, once you walk down some of the side streets and past the small altars and shrines to the Virgin Mary and a whole host of other saints that the people of Naples still tie their lives around, you do see what people really care about.

A Life To Live

Walking down one particular alley way between two towering sets of apartments we couldn’t help but look through the open doorways and windows to catch a glimpse of the way people live their lives and what we saw inside was fantastic.

We saw room after tiny room of groups of women all surrounding a table and working away over sewing, or laundry, making pasta or any other activity; anything that they could do almost blindfolded so that they could work on what really mattered – talking, laughing and gossiping with the others.

The people inside of those rooms don’t care much for the quality of the place they’re in because what matters most are the people who fill it. They don’t need a huge big screen tv on the wall to zone out in front of, they’re more than content with sitting as a collection of mothers, daughters and ageing grandmothers with the soft sound of an old radio playing in the background.

Through on doorway we saw two men working away at some dough that would be put to use later in the day, and as we stopped to watch them work they were full of smiles.

In fact, when we asked to take a picture, one of the men was so happy and grinning from ear-to-ear at the chance that he grabbed his girlfriend who was nearby and stood ready for a picture!

Neither of us could stop ourselves from smiling at just how happy everyone was, and this guy especially and even in my loose understanding of Italian managed to gather that he was really proudly telling us that his girlfriend was pregnant!

The Truth Is…

The truth is that you should never form an opinion on the back of hearsay and just as our great host at the hotel was trying to explain, it’s actually these more localised areas of the city that hold all of the things that make it different. It’s how people manage with little, but have a life full of a lot of smiles, fun and warmth that make Naples special.

Nobody really want’s to harm you, and it’s only if you go striding off into the suburbs with your £2000 camera around your neck and your most expensive holiday clothes on that perhaps people might give you a little trouble, but for the most part, if you’re sensible then you’ve nothing to worry about.

The rewards of putting a little bit of trust into humanity and just getting right into things far out way any concerns we had, from the people we met, the things we saw and (especially great for us street art loving travellers) the street art that we found.

Stay Safe, See The World

If you want to see the world, if you want to see Napoli – do. Don’t be put off by what you see on the news or read in the papers. Don’t even let this post sway your thoughts. What we’d rather is that people like yourself decide to visit Naples to make an opinion of your own, so that you can see just how safe we really think it is, and for you to meet the people that make this city what it is. Just remember to take precautions like you would anywhere else, and don’t forget to let us know how right we were when you return from your trip to the city.

Do you think Napoli is safe to travel to?

36 Comments

Luigi
on October 30, 2016 at 15:38

Hi Dale, interesting article. However, it seems to be that, even though you want to give a different view of Naples, you end up giving the same stereotypical image of Naples that many people have: shabby houses, dity streets, supposed “poverty” etc. On the other hand, Naples has so many different things: a great new metro system with stations designed by contemporary artists (see toledo station, just mind-blowing), a beautiful and elegant promenade along the sea, beautiful liberty villas etc. Rome/Milan/every city in Europe have bad neighbourhoods, but you didn’t concentrate your articles on the worst part of these cities, so why did you concentrate your article on the quartieri spagnoli that is only one part of naples? I understand that what makes naples different is that the “poor” area is right in the center while in most other cities this doesn’t happen, but it’s like making an article of barcelona only looking at the raval.
Another thing that I don’t really understand is why people go to Asia or South America and say they love let’s say Hanoi/Indian cities, which are full of really decadent buildings, real poverty, shabby and dirty streets, and then they see some of this in Naples and say the city is bad. I feel it’s quite puzzling

I love Napoli. It’s probably my second favourite city in Italia, and I’ve visited plenty of them to have made that choice.

Napoli is MUCH MORE than the “shabby houses” you’ve mentioned (in fact, you used that term, not I).

As the following quote clearly states; I felt far more at home in the “shabby” neighbourhood anyway:

“…as soon as we started to step over the invisible border of the city into this more ‘typical‘ Neapolitan part, I immediately felt more connect to the real people that lived there.”

This piece was to highlight that Napoli is MORE than the promenade (which everyone always sees anyway), and more than Toledo Station.

Please feel free to read articles in future before commenting.

Jim
on July 7, 2016 at 15:36

My wife and I visited southern Italy last week. We stayed in Sorrento but ventured into Naples one day to go on a sight-seeing tour. I felt very safe in Sorrento but very unsafe in Naples. Our hotel in Sorrento did not have a safe! So I carried my wallet with me when we went to Naples. I wore hiking pants with a diagonal zipper on the right leg in the upper tight. The pockets were deep so I figured my wallet would be safe, unfortunately a group of pickpockets did try to take it!

The sightseeing tour bus took us through Naples and we were shocked at how much graffiti was located all over the city – it really makes the city seem seedy. After the sightseeing tour, we decided to take the R2 public transportation bus back to the train station. We were a few minutes early and had to wait at the stop for the bus. When the bus finally arrived, several men ran ahead of us to get on the bus. I just thought that they were rude.

Once we got on the bus, my wife and I were stuck near the front as it was somewhat crowded. However, they let my wife go past to swipe her bus card, but didn’t move for me, which I assumed was because they didn’t speak English.

So the bus kept going – I was standing close to a man in front of me who was facing me and there were also men on my side and behind me as I held onto a pole with my left hand. At one point, I noticed that someone was leaning against my right leg, so I felt down and realized that my zipper pocket had been unzipped, although my wallet was still there. I was so enraged and that I punched the man in front of me as hard as I could in the lower ribcage just above his stomach, as he was standing entirely too close to me and I assumed he had been trying to steal my wallet. After I did this, he fell back a couple feet and the men around me also stepped away. I though it was on and I was going to have to fight to defend myself. However, the man I hit didn’t do anything other than yell at me that I was crazy. I didn’t realize at the time that the other men around me were in on this. After the punch I looked to my right side and saw a shrimpy guy with a terrified look on his face – he must have been in on this.

Nobody else, including the bus driver, did anything during this altercation. The man I punched was probably in his 50s and was out of shape. I guess his role was to use his fat body to box in a mark.

The pickpockets were clearly not prepared for a mark to use force to protect himself and did not want a physical confrontation. They got off the bus at the next stop. After they got off a friendly man came up and said that there were 4 men trying to pick my pocket and I did the right thing by punching one of them.

I later found at that the R2 bus and the train station are notorious for having pickpockets.

So I have to say that Naples is not a good city for tourists. Another thing my wife and I thought was odd was that hardly anyone spoke English in that city, including police and railway workers. We felt very unsafe and will never return to Naples.

Madeleine Worrall
on August 5, 2016 at 12:19

It’s a shame you had to criminally assault someone on a bus – perhaps if you learnt basic Italian you could call out instead, if this ever happens again, and ask for help in order to publicise the pick-pocketing? I continue to be amazed that tourists whose own language is English automatically expect the rest of the world to speak English; it’s an extraordinarily unimaginative and arrogant presumption!

Karen
on May 7, 2016 at 08:48

Hi I love this review, I’m going to be in Naples soon but only for a few hours and wanted to see the true Naples that I’ve seen on photos with old cobbled streets and laundry hung out everywhere, could you tell me the best places to see this please, many thanks

I have just come back from a five night stay in Italy, with the first two of those nights being in Naples. I would only ever go back to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, which we didn’t have time to visit but I would never ever stay there again.
Although there are some very nice people there and the pizza is gorgeous (in the fight place) I felt un-nervy all the time there and we had to have a taxi from our hotel to get anywhere as we couldn’t walk anywhere as we were in the outskirts!
We came back at the end of our stay in Rome on the fo!lowing 3 nights, to catch our flight home but even in the middle of the day, you walk from the airport across the street to the alibus and there are gangs of men everywhere just watching, hanging around everywhere. Definitely not safe for women on their own!

I’d push for the same caution for solo travellers in Napoli and Rome as I would for London and New York:

– Be smart
– Don’t carry all your money with you
– Hide your expensive camera when you’re not using it
– Dress like a local. Don’t walk around in Chanel when everyone else is dressed in Charity Shop worthy clothes

I’m in the process of planning a european trip this June, and my friend and I are planning two nights in Naples. I have seen SO MANY different opinions, and horror stories, and love stories of Naples and I just keep finding myself torn. I’m trying to read the positive stuff because I don’t want to be pre-dertimined to feel unsafe and threatened while there! We are taking a morning train from Rome, and staying two nights, and mostly plan to use Naples as a hub to reach Ercolano, and the Amalfi Coast. My only worries are being near the train station after dark and then having to get back to our hotel as I worry we may not be able to avoid it when we do our day trip to Ercolano and Sorrento. But I appreciate the positive information and the good vibes here! Thank you!

My first recommendation to you would be to picture yourself walking home from the train station late at night in your home town. Feel safe? That’s how you should feel in Naples.

Yes, there is crime. Just as much as there is in my own home town.

As long as you dress like a local (no shorts when the locals are in jumpers, hats, and gloves and behave like a local ), and behave like a local (don’t stare, and don’t wear your ££££ camera around your neck like a tourist) then you should be fine.

We often found in South America that the cities with a bad reputation had the friendliest people. We did avoid some of the capitals, but that’s mostly because we preferred to be in the mountains. Naples sounds very interesting. I’m glad you found some street art too. 🙂Katie Featherstone recently posted…Friday Fix: kayaking from Kimmeridge, Dorset.

As a confessed pizza-a-holic, Naples are high on my travel bucket list given that it´s considered the birthplace of pizza – I guess, there´s almost nothing that could put me off from achieving that goal:) Like you open-minded attitude very much!Julie K. recently posted…Dallas Buyers Club – Inspiring and Maddening

This post is amazing makes me think I wrote such a lousy one about Naples. I agree Naples is a great authentic, culturally rich city with great food. Its so much more real than touristy Amalfi coast. But I don’t think it is misunderstood. It does feel unsafe even though I come from New Delhi.

One thing I’ve learn’t from travelling and talking to fellow travellers is that it’s all down to personal vision, experiences and if anything bad has happened during a stay somewhere. If you walk the streets and you’re bothered on all sides by people tugging on your arm trying to sell you something or swindle you; you’ll hate your time. I guess the reason that Napoli has such a bad reputation is that through the years there have been those people who visit and get bothered by people trying to con them, hence the bad memories.

From our experience (and talking with locals), it seems that it’s certainly getting better in Naples, they just need people to give them a chance again.

It looks like a great city! I’m from the New York area, so I’ve learned not to listen to what outsiders think about an area being ‘scary’ – people can get funny ideas about anyplace that isn’t what they’re used to.

People get funny ideas because news outlets have nothing better to report than the worst stories from people and their holidays. Good stories from a risk-free time in Napoli or New York don’t sell so well, I suppose.

While I wouldn’t say that Naples made me feel unsafe, when I traveled there many moons ago, it was definitely my least favorite place in Italy. Could be because of the issues Franca mentioned, but there was garbage all over the place (I have pictures of it from our hostel balcony, just piled up like an obstacle course in the street), and the people my friend & I encountered were definitely a lot more grabby and aggressive. As two female travelers, we didn’t exactly feel at ease. Based on that encounter, I’ve never really wanted to return BUT with so much more travel experience under my belt, I wonder if I would feel differently now. I guess there is only one way to know…Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted…Charmed (& Swindled!) At Sri Mahamariamman Temple

I know how you feel. I think that as our viewpoints on travel have grown since we initially started to travel, it takes more and more to surprise us and make us feel a little out of sorts and being in Napoli felt as safe as anywhere else in the world.

I suppose it has something to do with our not wearing out Gucci backpacks out on the streets that made us feel a little safer.

There was still some trash on the streets (see above), but in comparison to Franca’s mentioning it to me it hardly seems the obstacle course you saw on your previous visit.Dale recently posted…Five Tips and Pics for Naples

Great post and I couldn’t agree more. Naples was actually one of my favorite places in all of Italy. It just had such a vibrant and lively feel to it! You’re right though that you can’t just listen to what people tell you. The media picks up the worst stories and spreads them around but you never hear about the wonderful things, too. Before coming to Mexico a lot of our friends and families were really worried about us, but from what we’ve felt very safe. It’s all about taking basic precautions, like you said. Great post!Casey @ A Cruising Couple recently posted…14 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day Around the World

Great to see that you’ve found the same on your travels, that most of the time the stories you hear are an exaggeration and just built up by the news on most occasions. I’m sure that nine times out of ten, most people have a normal experience with nothing out of the ordinary happening apart from a lovely relaxing time in an other countries culture.Dale recently posted…The Glass Roofed Glory of Galleria Umberto I, Naples

Love, love, love this! These are the neighborhoods I most enjoy, where normal people actually LIVE. This is how you get to know the city your visiting. And what’s with everyone saying every place is dangerous? When we were planning our trip to Thailand, people told us we should skip Bangkok all together because it was unsafe. We went anyway and of course we loved it.Heather recently posted…New York City Revisited: A Fanciful Retreat

I hate it when people keep telling me how dangerous a certain place is. People did it with Cambodia all the time (and Cambodia is less dangerous than the UK and US!) and today a very annoying 11 year old girl from the US told me that I should be careful when going to Rio as I will definitely get mugged. I told her that I have been before, nothing happened to me then and that it is like any other city. You can be lucky or unlucky. I never listen to other people anymore, as I usually have a very different opinion about certain places anyway.TammyOnTheMove recently posted…Taquile Island – Where sheep headbutt boys, and boys headbutt sheep

I couldn’t agree more. I think that more often than not the stories you’ll hear will be about the worst that has happened as people love to gossip about what a friend may have gone through, they don’t always talk so much about a friends calm and relaxing holiday somewhere as it’s not so open to gossip.

Sorry, I do love Napoli, but when I was there (I stayed almost a month) in 2003 it was a very unsafe place to hang around. Even during daytime. Pickpockets in lot of places (buses, Circumvesuviana, except the port area) and syringes and needles all around the train station, Piazza Garibaldi and surroundings. I even saw a guy getting high with a syringe in Via Toledo at lunchtime! One thing that also surprised me, was the disastrous state of conservation of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Maybe the city has changed, and I hope so because Napoli and the whole Campania are so beautiful! I travelled a lot there and I would love to go back someday and find a safe and clean city (it wasn´t back then).Claudia recently posted…Centrál Kávehaz, el esplendor de los cafés centroeuropeos

I suppose that we should have asked a few more people about the past of Napoli other than the few people we did during our time there, plus what Franca knew already from what she’d seen on Italian news in the past and conversations with family and friends who’d been there.

I can only hope that the Napoli we saw is one that has changed from the crazy place you stayed in during 2003 and is still changing for the better today.Dale recently posted…Five Tips and Pics for Naples

Not at all Dale, those were your impressions about Naples and maybe things have changed since 2003. I love to read about your experience there. No one has the same travel or sees the same city. I just wanted to share my opinion that might help to understand why Naples is not highly considered among certain kind of travellers. I was, as usual, travelling by myself and in some places I did feel unsafe, but of course, if you use your common sense, nothing will happen to you. Regardless of what I think or what people that just haven been visiting Naples have seen and think about the city, Naples, for some reasons, is kind of “different” from other cities in Italy. A good friend of mine was living there (I can’t remember the year) and as soon as she moved into a new apartment she had to “pay respects” to the “boss” of the neighbourhood and eventually she had to do some favors to the boss. That might be unbelievable and unacceptable for us, but lots of people living in Naples know what they can and cannot do. If someone asks me if I would like to visit Naples again I would say yes, why not, I would love to walk those beautiful and old streets again and if at some point I feel unsafe, I will cope with it the way I did before.Claudia recently posted…Berlín por una gran poetisa cubana

I really appreciate your viewpoint of Napoli, and also that each person travels and sees places in entirely different ways to the next person and I’m hoping that everyone here reads your comment to see just the kind of realities people have experienced in Napoli over the years.Dale recently posted…Five Tips and Pics for Naples

I was unaware of this myth and would’ve disregarded it anyway. Most of the people spouting this stuff have never been to an area. I think you did a great job of showing the nontourist side of Napoli, too, which I really enjoy seeing.Talon recently posted…Visiting Poland

Going on the experiences I’ve read on your site over the past two years, I knew immediately that this would be your kind of place. In fact, I think you’d love to spend some time there. Maybe there might be a housesitting chance one day? Fight you for it!Dale recently posted…A Quest For Blu – Street Art Hunting In Italy

I too agree that poor Napoli is just misunderstood. Yes, it can be dodgy at night, yes, you have to be cautious, but no more than any other city! I know more people who have been robbed in London that Napoli.

I work as a Tour Leader in Italy and I hate taking groups to Napoli because no one has a good time and can’t wait to get out – simply because of what they have read in the news. And we only go for the day! No matter how much you try and encourage them to be positive about the city, they just won’t. I know one colleague of mine who had someone in their group robbed in Napoli, but they were wearing an expensive watch and necklace which consequently got pulled from the ladies neck. As long as you don’t walk around with a sign on your forehead saying “rob me”, you would be very unlucky to run into serious trouble.

I always say to my groups in any city, you wouldn’t walk around late at night in a dark alley in your own city, so why do it in a city you don’t know AND don’t speak the language? It’s just about being sensible.Cyra @ Gastronomic Nomad recently posted…My Verdict: Group Tours vs Independent Travel

If we can help to settle people’s minds about Napoli, we’ll be really happy.

It’s such a shame that people already have their opinion about a place before they’ve arrived and given it a chance to impress them with just how fantastic a place it is.

All people have to do is follow the same advice you recommended; behave how you would in your own town. Don’t cover yourself in expensive accessories and expect people not to notice. Not to say that people are looking to be robbed by how they dress and display their expensive phone or camera, but a little common sense can go a long way.Dale recently posted…A Perfect Luxury Design Location – Hotel Market, Barcelona